Warm Winter Weirdness

The warm winter continues. The warm air mass colliding with a fast moving jet stream of cold air produced tornadoes in Kansas, Nebraska, and Missouri.

I have an agreement with a neighbor to help her move her pets to the basement if the sirens go off. She called at 1:10a.m. as things got bad and I was sound asleep! I subsequently moved the phone closer to the bed so that I would hear her call the next time.

Enough of my doomsday predictions for the return of winter: global warming wins!

I predict that today is the beginning of Spring 2012. Look no further than the crab apple and cherry trees blooming along Bellevue Avenue. The Weigelia bush (normally a May bloomer) in the yard of the neighbor with pets is in blood red bloom. Cool weather grasses are reliably green, a full two weeks before the St. Patrick's Day parades.

The phrase describing March, "in like a lion, out like a lamb", has been turned on its head! I shut off the heat and threw open my windows. A light breeze blew dust bunnies out from under the futon. In the bright light, the streaky mirrors looked like they were directly transported from "The Fall of the House of Usher". I resolved to begin Spring housecleaning---tomorrow!

In the meantime, I headed out to my balcony. In shorts and an Italian tee shirt, I planted my "Sweet Salad Mix" of Mesclun seeds into three "squirrel-proof" pots. Then I headed off to Custard Stand for my first turtle sundae of the Spring season.